In 1863, James Caleb Jackson, owner of a medical sanitarium in western New York, created the world’s first breakfast cereal from graham flour dough. It was so hard that it needed to be soaked in milk overnight in order to become edible.
Fast forward almost a hundred years, and Kellogg’s Cereal answers the United States’ post-World War II baby boom with its first sugary cereal called “Sugar Frosted Flakes.” Its pitchman, Tony the Tiger, appealed to kids. By the 1970s, almost all grocery stores in the U.S. had colorful cereal aisles adorned with products like Boo Berry and Fruity Pebbles.
Fast forward another 50 years to the East End of London, where Alan and Gary Keery, from Belfast, came up with the idea of a cereal café after a long night out on the town. They called it Cereal Killer Café. It inspired countless other such cafes.
This year hasn’t brought us a lot of things to celebrate, but here is one: Indy has its very own cereal café! It’s called Higher Life Cereal Café, and you and your hungry brood can find it on Post Road on the east side of Indianapolis.
I took my boys there for what was unanimously “the best lunch of their entire lives.” Mostly because we have never nor will we probably have a lunch so loaded with sugar upon sugar.
Because the majority of the fun at a cereal café is choosing what to put with what, I absolutely must share what we each chose to have. Please know that these menu choices were as carefully constructed as their Christmas wish list.
My oldest son ordered birthday cake ice cream with cotton candy Cap’n Crunch (who knew this flavor even existed?) and, as if that wasn’t enough, Hershey’s chocolate syrup. My middle son, a chocoholic like me, ordered chocolate ice cream with chocolate Lucky Charms, mini-marshmallows, and, of course, Hershey’s chocolate syrup. My youngest son didn’t get cereal, but instead chose a toasted cinnamon roll Pop-Tart with vanilla ice cream, mini marshmallows and whipped cream. An 80s kid myself, I went for the Eggo waffle with vanilla ice cream, Chips Ahoy cereal and Hershey’s chocolate syrup.
Higher Life Cereal Café was a fun, playful outing that I would recommend to anyone!
8949 E. Washington St., Indianapolis | higherlifecerealcafecom.com
